Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, has described the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as “very disappointing.”
In an interview with Daily Trust, Jega said the current administration has performed below the expectations of “so many Nigerians”.
Jega served as Nigeria’s electoral umpire from 2010 to 2015, following his appointment by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He remains the only INEC chairman that has presided over two general elections in Nigeria — in 2011 and 2015, when Jonathan lost to Buhari, making him the first incumbent president to lose re-election.
Jega, who was once a vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, said although Buhari enjoys goodwill from many Nigerians, citizens are worried “about the direction the country is taking.”
“He (Buhari) has disappointed so many people. He still has time to correct things if he has the capacity to do that. Frankly, his government has been very disappointing,” he was quoted to have said.
“Governance has been very poor at the federal level and many of the states, that is why we are seeing challenges everywhere; whether it is insurgency, banditry, armed robbery or other things.”
Jega also described Nigerian politicians as the most reckless, most selfish and most self-serving in the world.
“We have a lot to do; and the first thing to do is to get it right by securing the mindset of our politicians from selfishness, greed and reckless banditry. Actually, many of them are also bandits, not just those who stand by the roadside with AK 47.
To steal recklessly from government’s coffers and turn hundreds, if not millions of people into poverty, deny children the opportunity to go to school because they have stolen the money that would have gone into education or was supposed to buy arms and ammunition for the military, to the extent that they can no longer fight banditry, that is banditry itself,” he said.